Report slams Pasteur Institute for loss of SARS virus tubes - and finds it also lost a freezer storing them

Earlier this year it was revealed that the Pasteur Institute had lost more than 2,300 vials containing the potentially deadly SARS virus that were stocked on its premises in Paris. Mediapart has gained access to a confidential report of the investigation launched into the blunder, and from which it emerges that not only the vials went missing, but also the boxes and a freezer in which they were stored. The investigation contradicts the institute’s claim that the missing virus samples were no longer dangerous, and says that access to where they were kept was alarmingly insecure. Michel de Pracontal details the findings.